Georgia does not offer a professional LLC

What Georgia offers instead

How do you form a professional corporation in Georgia instead?

1. 1

   Confirm the profession qualifies

   Georgia has no professional LLC. A professional corporation is open only to the professions listed in O.C.G.A. § 14-7-2(2), and its shares may be held only by persons licensed in that profession. Licensed professionals may instead practise through an ordinary LLC under § 14-11-1107(f).

   Source: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-2 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · O.C.G.A. § 14-7-5 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · O.C.G.A. § 14-11-1107 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · Georgia SOS, Filing Procedures for Forming a Georgia Corporation

2. 2

   Choose a name with a professional designator

   O.C.G.A. § 14-7-6: the name must satisfy § 14-2-401, except that in place of the corporate word it may use "associated", "professional association", "professional corporation", or an abbreviation of any of them. To reserve the name, you must furnish the regulating board's confirmation of your professional status.

   Source: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-6 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 590-7-2-.10

3. 3

   File Articles of Incorporation with the election

   File Articles of Incorporation with the Corporations Division, online or by mail with the Transmittal Information Form (CD 227). They must state that the purpose is to practise the named profession and that the corporation elects to be governed by the Georgia Professional Corporation Act. Pay the filing fee set by the state.

   Have LLCity prepare and file it ›

   Source: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-3 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · Georgia SOS, Filing Procedures for Forming a Georgia Corporation

4. 4

   Name a registered agent at a Georgia street office

   Each Georgia corporation must continuously maintain a registered office and a registered agent whose business office is identical with it. The Corporations Division requires a Georgia street address; a post office box is not sufficient.

   What Georgia requires of your agent, and how we serve as it ›

   Source: O.C.G.A. § 14-2-501 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · Georgia SOS, Filing Procedures for Forming a Georgia Corporation

5. 5

   Publish the notice of incorporation

   Deliver an undertaking to publish with the articles, then, no later than the next business day after filing, send a Notice of Incorporation to the legal organ or a qualifying newspaper in the registered office's county. It runs once a week for two consecutive weeks.

   Source: O.C.G.A. § 14-2-201.1 (Official Code, Title 14 volume, Georgia General Assembly) · O.C.G.A. 2025 Supplement, Title 14 (no amendment shown)

6. 6

   File the initial and yearly annual registration

   Within 90 days of incorporation, file an initial annual registration listing three principal officers; corporations formed between October 2 and December 31 file between January 1 and April 1 of the next year. Later registrations are due between January 1 and April 1, and missing one risks administrative dissolution.

   Source: Georgia SOS, Filing Procedures for Forming a Georgia Corporation

Steps checked against the sources linked under each one on 12 November 2026.

Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?

Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 590-7-2-.10: "Applicants seeking the reservation of a name for a professional corporation shall furnish to the Commissioner a confirmation from the appropriate regulating board or authority of the professional status of the applicant seeking to incorporate." For certain professions the registration number from the Secretary of State's Professional Licensing Boards Division, or for an attorney the State Bar of Georgia number, meets the requirement. The step is tied to the name reservation; the Corporations Division's filing procedure says formation filings are accepted without a name reservation.

Which occupations does Georgia treat as professional?

A closed enumerated list. O.C.G.A. § 14-7-2(2) defines "profession" as certified public accountancy, architecture, chiropractic, dentistry, professional engineering, land surveying, law, pharmacy, psychology, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathy, podiatry, veterinary medicine, registered professional nursing, or harbor piloting. The Secretary of State's Corporations Division reproduces that same list in its filing procedure and adds that a person or group making the election "must be licensed by an appropriate regulating board to practice one of the professions listed in the Georgia Professional Corporation Act in Georgia". "Licensed" is defined at § 14-7-2(1) to include registered, certified, admitted to practice, or otherwise legally authorized under Georgia law by the appropriate regulating board, and "regulating board" at § 14-7-2(4) means any board, commission, court or governmental authority charged with that licensing.

Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary Georgia LLC’s?

No. Georgia sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary Georgia LLC files under.

No difference. O.C.G.A. § 14-2-501 applies to a professional corporation as to any Georgia corporation: a registered office in Georgia and a registered agent whose business office is identical with it; the filing procedure requires a Georgia street address, not a post office box.

Why Georgia answers this way

Georgia has no professional limited liability company because the General Assembly removed the need for one. O.C.G.A. § 14-11-1107(f) provides that Georgia's laws relating to the establishment and regulation of professional services "are amended and superseded to the extent such laws are inconsistent as to form of organization" with the LLC chapter, and "are deemed amended to permit the provision of professional services within this state by limited liability companies". § 14-11-1107(g) preserves every licensing body's authority over the individual licensee. So a licensed Georgian practising through an LLC uses an ordinary LLC; rule 590-7-20-.01 gives only the ordinary LLC designators and bars "professional corporation" from an LLC name. A Georgia professional corporation may practise only one profession, with statutory exceptions that treat certain combinations as one (§ 14-7-4(a)), and shares may only be issued to, held by or transferred to a person licensed to practise that profession (§ 14-7-5(a)). A new corporation must also publish a notice of incorporation (§ 14-2-201.1).